Information Manipulation, Coordination, and Regime Change

This is a revised version of a chapter from my UCLA dissertation. Previous versions circulated under the title "Information and the limits to autocracy". I would particularly like to thank Andrew Atkeson and Christian Hellwig for their encouragement and many helpful discussions. I also thank Marios Angeletos, Costas Azariadis, Heski Bar-Isaac, Adam Brandenburger, Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, Ignacio Esponda, Catherine de Fontenay, Matias Iaryczower, Stephen Morris, Alessandro Pavan, Andrea Prat, Hyun Shin, Adam Szeidl, Laura Veldkamp, Iván Werning, seminar participants at the ANU, Boston University, University of Chicago (GSB and Harris), Duke University, FRB Minneapolis, La Trobe University, LSE, University of Melbourne, MIT, NYU, Northwestern University, Oxford University, University of Rochester, UC Irvine, University College London and UCLA and participants at the NBER political economy meetings for their comments. Vivianne Vilar provided excellent research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.